ZURICH (Reuters) - Julius Baer said it believes it will find a "fair and equitable" solution to a U.S. criminal probe into the Swiss bank's role in helping wealthy Americans evade their taxes.

The Zurich-based private bank said it had little substantial information to add on its own probe, two months after larger rival Credit Suisse in a similar investigation became the largest bank in decades to plead guilty to a U.S. criminal charge and agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion in penalties.

"I think the fact that Credit Suisse could find a settlement as a category one bank has unlocked the situation, so I think the discussions are ongoing," Julius Baer Chief Executive Boris Collardi told journalists on a call following first-half earnings.

"I continue to believe that in the end we will find a fair and equitable solution for the group. I think we can reasonably say that this is now a topic of a matter of a few more months and not years as in the past."